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What's New?

Change Billing ContactsYou can now customize your billing contacts, rather than just using the list of administrators, from the "Administrators" item of your site's "Users" menu.

Oct 1, 2015

20272

Manage MX RecordsYou can now update your MX records from the "Domain/Email" item of your site's "Features" menu. This is useful if you want to switch over to a dedicated email service, such as Office 365.

Nov 17, 2014

11854

New Widget: DonationsWe've made it even easier to accept donations via PayPal on your site with the new Donations widget, available in the "Community" widget folder.

Sep 14, 2014

12544

Social Network LinksYou can now create links to your social networking sites easily from the "Social Networks" item of your "Features" menu. Buttons for these networks will show up in your footer and various other places in your site.

Aug 19, 2014

12217

New Webmail ClientWe've been using the same webmail software for a decade now, and to be honest, it wasn't all that great even back then. The final nail in the coffin was a few functions breaking when we upgraded some server software a couple weeks ago. We're happy to announce that we've given our webmail feature a huge upgrade! The new software should be self-explanatory, and your email and data should still be exactly where you left it. Please let us know if you run into any issues.

Send Email to Mailing Lists!We've found a way to offer one of our most requested features: sending email to your mailing lists! In the "Mailing Lists" item of your site's "Users" menu, there are now buttons to send email to the list. Please let us know if you run into any problems or have any questions.

Oct 5, 2012

6845

Retooled Look & Feel SelectionThe "Look & Feel" item of your site's "Layout" menu had grown unwieldy as we added more choices. We've retooled this page to make it easier. Click for more information.

Easier Widget DraggingYou spoke, we listened: moving widgets into and around your page was clunky at times, sometimes involving some wiggling and flickering. We've retooled the system to make the process smooth as butter.

Facebook & Twitter PublishingExciting news: you can now link your Facebook page and Twitter account to your website, allowing you to post news, events and links to website pages to your feeds easily. Click for more information.

Jun 2, 2012

4903

New Layout: "Modern Minimalist"Thin is in, and our newest layout fits the bill. This very clean and elegant layout features a pretty logo and a vertical navigation bar. Try it out from the "Look & Feel" item of your site's "Layout" menu.

New HTML EditorOur new HTML editor is prettier, faster, and more stable. Enjoy!

Apr 19, 2012

4697

Appointment BookingWe're happy to announce a huge new feature: appointment booking. Do you have resources, such as people, rooms, or services, which you'd like to allow your users to book online? Now you can! Click for more information.

Apr 19, 2012

4581

Easy Group User AddWe've made it easier to add users to your group. The user add page now has an auto-complete form for the user's name, as well as a button to quickly create a new user.

Mar 27, 2012

4382

Stat GraphsThe "Statistics" item of your site's "Features" menu now has more (and prettier) charts available, and the data in the charts are 100% accurate, rather than the previous estimations. The new charts are the number of unique visitors for a particular day, as well as the bandwidth used. Hover your mouse to see the data for a day.

Store: Item OptionsYou can now add options to the items in your store, such as colors for a T-shirt. Click through to the product, and click the "Options" button.

Dec 15, 2011

3828

Groups: Now Widget-BasedWe've reworked groups so that they take full advantage of widgets as well. Group pages have been converted over, and should look the same, except that you can now drag in new content and click-and-drag existing content around. You can also break free of the usual two-column layout to create whatever you'd like to make.

Dec 15, 2011

3840

Big Annoucement: WidgetsWe've released our biggest feature yet: widgets! Your front page is no longer special - you can now drag widgets onto any page of your site. Sort your front page with click-and-drag, edit text in place, build new pages with your mouse, and much more! Let us know if you have any questions or comments. More Information

Dec 8, 2011

3676

Rotating Gallery for GroupsThere's a new module available for group pages called "Photo Rotator". It works like the front-page module, showing one image, then fading to others.

Aug 21, 2011

3850

Background Music ReorderingYou can now click-and-drag to reorder your songs in the background music list. We also added the ability to turn off downloads for everyone or just for unregistered users in the Media Manager (under the "Settings" button).

Aug 20, 2011

3809

New Template: "Dirty Feet"Bring a sense of childlike innocence and rebirth to your website with our latest template, "Dirty Feet".

Aug 3, 2011

3966

Password-Protected GroupsYou can now harness the power of private groups, without making your visitors create accounts with our new password protection feature. Edit a group from the list, and choose "Only Those With a Password" from the "Who Can Join & View" menu. Anyone with the password can now view your group, whether or not they're logged on with a website account.

Jul 30, 2011

3940

Webmail LinkQuick little tweak: if you have the webmail package, you can now access it directly from the "Webmail" item of your site's "Features" menu.

Jun 21, 2011

4562

Affiliate Interface UpdateYour affiliate information is now centralized in the "Affiliates" item of your site's "Help" menu. We've also added a new bonus: anyone who signs up from your affiliate link will get an extra gigabyte of disk space in their account! We also added a printable flyer you can hand to your more traditionally-minded associates. Remember, you earn the first four months' fees of anyone you refer our way!

Jun 20, 2011

4283

Video List ModuleOur old media manager list module was boring, just a list of text links. We've created a new list format option with thumbnail previews of the videos, to entice your users to click on the media. Check out the "Front-Page Layout" item of your "Layout" menu. click "Add Module", open the "Files & Media" folder and choose one of the "Video List" options.

Jun 5, 2011

4305

New Mobile SiteWe're working hard to make your site useful for mobile devices. Click for more information!

Background Music ImprovementsWe've overhauled the background music player behind the scenes to improve the browser handling. Things like the title, back button and bookmarks will now work properly.

Apr 24, 2011

4285

Recovering Deleted AccountsYou can now restore your deleted user accounts from the dead. They'll now show up in the "Directory" item of your site's "Users" menu for admins. Clicking their account will offer a "Restore" button to re-enable their account.

Apr 5, 2011

4071

Front Page Media Player ModulesAudio and video files uploaded to your Media Manager can now be added directly to your site's front page. When adding a new module in the "Front-Page Layout" item of your "Layout" menu, you'll see your uploads in the "Files & Media" section. The player will adjust to the column width and your user's browser, if needed.

Mar 27, 2011

4470

New Template: "Clean Elegance"Our sharpest template yet is now available! It features customizable colors, and a a new feature, a set of three customizable picture frames in 3D glory.

Mar 22, 2011

4296

Front-Page Layout Editor RedesignWe've had a lot of feedback about our front-page layout editor, and we've redesigned the interface to make it easier to edit. In the "Front-Page Layout" item of your site's "Layout" menu, rather than a sidebar of unused modules you can drag onto the columns, there are "Add Module" buttons above each column. These will bring up a popup with module options in a friendlier format. Best of all - you can now preview what the module will look like before you add it!

Mar 9, 2011

4149

Template Editory HistoryEditing templates can be scary, but we added a feature to take the edge off. All versions of your templates from here on out will be saved. The new "History" button on the editor will take you to a list, and you'll be able to revert back to an old version if you accidentally mess something up.

Mobile ImprovementsWe've made a few improvements to our mobile interface. There's now a button at the bottom to switch to the desktop version, which will switch back after a few hours. We've also retooled the administration menus to make them more mobile-accessible - just click the yellow key at the top-left.

Jan 30, 2011

4126

New File Manager InterfaceThe interface for your File Manager has been overhauled to make it easier to use and much nicer-looking. We've kept most things in the same place to keep it easy to transition. Keep an eye out for new File Manager features to come!

Jan 30, 2011

4171

YouTube Videos in the Media ManagerA much-requested feature has arrived - you can now add YouTube videos directly to your Media Manager. When adding or editing an item, the video field has a new link to switch over to YouTube mode.

Jan 29, 2011

3851

New Template: "Blue Glow"Here's a simple but elegant new template, with a custom rotating gallery and a new feature: an embedded banner. Under the options, there are variations for additional colors as well.

Dec 14, 2010

4552

New Linkbar EditorIt's now much easier to edit your linkbar, with a tree-based click-and-drag interface.

Nov 24, 2010

3997

More Custom Image HeadersWe've added the ability to customize the header images for a number of our other templates (Somber Cross, Sunday Smile, Dandelion and Life Collage). Just click the "Edit" button in the top-left corner of the image. As in the other templates, multiple images will rotate in realtime.

Oct 17, 2010

4188

New Template: Photo CaterpillarWe weren't happy with giving you just a simple way to add custom header images. Our new template, "Photo Caterpillar" takes your custom header images and brings them alive with exciting animation transitions.

Aug 29, 2010

5148

Custom Header Images!Big news: one of our most requested features has arrived - point-and-click header photo control! Our latest template, "Custom Header", allows you to upload images for use in the header. Best of all, you can upload more than one image, and it will show them all as a rotating slideshow! We've also created a new template options box that lets you tweak it even more. Look for this in more templates soon.

Aug 25, 2010

5167

Header Font ShadowsWe've revamped our header font section. There's now a shortcut in your admin menu (Layout → Header Fonts). From here, you can now add shadows to the text to make it stand out. We've also revamped the rendering engine so that it will handle transparency more cleanly.

Background MusicAnother often-requested feature is now available: background music. Upload your MP3s to the "Background Music" item of your site's "Features" menu and your site will erupt in song.

Jun 9, 2010

6074

Live Video Broadcasting!It's been one of our most requested features, and we're finally able to offer it: live video broadcasting from your website! See the "Live Broadcasting" item of your site's "Content" menu for more information.

Jun 8, 2010

4796

Calendar Module BeautificationWe've made the front-page calendar module prettier. The idea is the same, we've just tightened up the layout, made it more easily scannable, and it now handles extreme situations more gracefully (narrow browsers, long content, etc).

May 25, 2010

4936

Upload Progress BarsMost areas on the site now have upload progress bars and estimated time indicators when sending files to the server. The file manager will have these soon as well!

May 19, 2010

4713

Button UpgradeYou may have noticed a slight change in the format of the buttons ("Edit", etc) on your site. We're in the process of making them nicer-looking, and also much more efficient - they're now pure CSS, rather than images. The main modules are converted, and the rest will be done shortly.

May 11, 2010

6255

New Feature: Store!We have an exciting new addition to our software: a store manager. You can now create stores to sell merchandise and accept donations. See the "Stores" item of your site's "Features" menu to get started!

Apr 26, 2010

4736

Featured Gallery PhotoYou can now feature a photo in a given gallery. It will show as the thumbnail for the gallery in the list.

New Template: "Lamb of God"We have a dramatic and beautiful new template called "Lamb of God" available. This is another dark background option. As always, you can try it out from the "Look & Feel" item of your site's "Layout" menu.

New Template: "Golden Swoosh"We're hard at work to bring you even more template options. Our newest is called "Golden Swoosh", and it's perfect for those of you who like darker backgrounds and flowing shapes.

Dec 28, 2009

4703

New Template: "Cigar Box"We have another new template. This one is a warm brown layout with some interesting new technical features. Enjoy!

Dec 22, 2009

5005

Require Login For News CategoriesYou can now specify that a given news category requires a logon to view it, and its articles. Just go to the news category and click on the "Edit" item of the "This Page" menu to make this change.

Profile Editor UpgradeThe "Customize Your Profile" link on the front page now takes you to a streamlined profile editor. There are now intuitive icons to take you to the different options.

Dec 13, 2009

4836

Map ModuleWe've added a long-requested front-page module option: a map to your church. It fits well in either column. See the "Front-Page Layout" item of your site's "Layout" menu to add this.

Dec 9, 2009

4820

Flag Posts as SpamIt's now possible for you and your users to flag discussion posts as spam. These notifications go to us, where we can aggregate what's happening across all ThisChurch sites in realtime, allowing us to effectively block any posts that make it through our filters.

Dec 4, 2009

4900

Front-Page Layout UpgradesThe front-page layout section of your site now looks nicer, has tabs for the various functions, and has a couple of bugfixes. We're still looking into a small problem where dragging a module from the unused section makes it temporarily disappear, but it still functions correctly.

Dec 3, 2009

4643

Admin Link BoxWe've streamlined the admin links box. They're now collapsed by default - just click the icon to expand them. We've also added the same links under the "This Page" menu at the top of your site. Read for tech details.

New Template: "Stormy Cross"We've been making a lot of infrastructure improvements to pave the way to your most-requested feature: more templates! Here's another one, with many more to come over the following months.

Nov 27, 2009

4706

New Linkbar OptionYou can now use the |LINKBAR| expansion in your template to output a list-formatted linkbar, which is lightweight and easy to style. The admin bar at the top of the site has been reformatted with this code for faster page loading.

Nov 26, 2009

5173

CSS EditorThe template editor now features a new CSS tab, where you can create a stylesheet. This file will be automatically linked into your template (at the end of the list, so it will override the default CSS code).

Nov 24, 2009

4760

New Template: "Life Collage"We have another new template available on your site! This one features a very clean and sleek layout, perfect for the minimalist at heart.

Nov 20, 2009

4695

Rotating Gallery Module UpgradeWe've rebuilt our rotating photo gallery front-page module. Aside from a nicer, cleaner look, it makes better use of space and is more bandwidth-efficient. It will shrink the image for narrow browsers or columns, so you can use it on a narrow column now.

New ServerWe've consolidated our sites onto a single, much more powerful server (for the geeks: 8 Nehalem cores, 12gb RAM, 15krpm drive) and upgraded our network uplink. In addition to backend optimizations, your site should run more quickly and reliably, we can use more powerful spam filtering tools, and nightly backups should no longer affect performance. It'll also let us to offer you more - stay tuned for more information!

Sep 18, 2009

4214

iCalendar Export FeedsEach of your calendars now has an export button on the bottom of the monthly view. You can use this to mirror your calendar events onto other software and websites, such as Google Calendar.

Sep 8, 2009

3820

Editable Header FontsIt's now possible to customize the header fonts for almost all of our templates from the "Customize Header Fonts" button of the "Look & Feel" item of your site's "Layout" menu. Only Flash templates (Moving Clouds and Hexagon) are still hardcoded.

Aug 28, 2009

4223

New Template EditorYou asked, we listened. Our HTML template editor is now much more powerful. You can edit a template in our new interface without activating it, and we have an easy-to-use preview pane to see your changes in realtime.

Aug 24, 2009

3726

New Template: "Hanging Vine"We have another new template available from the "Look & Feel" item of your site's "Layout" menu: "Hanging Vine".

Aug 13, 2009

5467

New Template: "Blue Flowers"We have a new template option available called Blue Flowers. It's whimsical with a little bit of an art deco feel. More coming soon!

Jul 31, 2009

5270

Media ManagerWe've released an exciting new feature: an integrated media manager. You can upload audio and video files, and these are processed and shown in a YouTube-style player. See the "Media Manager" item of your site's "Content" menu to get started.

Jul 24, 2009

3607

Photo Gallery Batch UploadWe've vastly improved our photo upload capabilities. You can now select multiple images at once to upload to photo galleries.

May 25, 2009

4165

Group FAQ AdministrationGroup administrators can now update the group's FAQ whether or not they're a global administrator.

May 11, 2009

4097

Calendar Event GalleriesIn addition to attachments, you can now also create photo galleries for calendar events. These can be for a single event or for the entire series of recurring events. View the event you'd like to add the gallery to, and click the "Add Gallery" button.

May 7, 2009

3959

Calendar Event AttachmentsYou can add attachments to calendar events, just as you can with news articles. Click the Add Attachment button in the yellow administration box to do this. You have the choice of attaching the file to all of the events in a recurring series, or just the chosen date. This is useful for sharing documents relating to the event.

May 7, 2009

3891

Event Signup FormsYou can now create inline signup forms for calendar events. Click the "Create Signup Form" button when viewing an event, and set up the fields. You can view the results from the "Custom Forms" item of your site's "Features" menu.

New Devotional OptionWe now offer a second devotional option. From the "Devotionals" front-page module, click the "Edit" button to select the new option, "Worthy Devotionals".

Jan 24, 2009

4382

Double Disk SpaceWe've been listening to your comments and suggestions: your website now has double the disk space available for no additional cost.

Jan 24, 2009

4333

View Your AffiliatesYou can now track the accounts you've referred to us. See the new link on the page for the "Refer Another Church" item of your site's "Help" menu. This is retroactive: you'll see everything past and present on this page.

Jan 21, 2009

3591

Private Group Membership RequestWhen you create a private group, users can now request to be added to the group. Groups admins will be emailed when a request has been made, and you'll have the option to either reject the user, or to add them as a regular member or an administrator.

Aug 28, 2008

5479

POP Mailbox Password ResetsWhen creating or resetting the password for a POP mailbox, you no longer need to create a password. Passwords are now sent to an external email box. This also helps foster trust, since you you will no longer know the passwords for your users' mailboxes. Nothing is necessary on your part; existing mailboxes will be unchanged.

Jul 10, 2008

5188

Efficient Large TablesInformation potentially displayed in very large tables (currently news and forum topics) is now displayed more efficiently. Only the first batch of records are loaded with the page, and the rest are fetched after the page loads. This will keep pages from being as sluggish.

Multiple DomainsYou can now set up multiple domain names from the "Domain/Email" item of your site's "Features" menu. Additional domain names act as aliases of your primary name both for web hosting and email accounts.

Editor UpgradeWe've upgraded our HTML editor! The biggest new feature is a full-screen mode. Click the monitor icon next to the "Source" button to expand the editor across your entire screen (and again to minimize it). Read on to learn more.

Apr 8, 2008

4863

Photo Gallery FilterThere is now a "Filter" button on the regular, non-rotating gallery module that allows you to choose which galleries can show.

Apr 1, 2008

4709

XML SitemapsYour site now contains an invisible sitemap, used by search engines for better indexing of your website. This will help your site to be updated by Google and other search engines in a more timely matter. Nothing is necessary on your part to enable this feature.

Mar 20, 2008

5562

Editor Font Quirks FixedThe problem where the font sizes and styles of edited text would sometimes not show on the site has been fixed (assuming you have the current version of the Look & Feel system). Previously edited content will now be showing as specified.

Mar 12, 2008

5682

MP3 Attachment Streaming for NewsWhen you upload an MP3 attachment to a news article or a blog/podcast post, it'll now automatically show a "Stream" link next to the attachment if you have the streaming media upgrade.

Jan 31, 2008

3954

Batch Photo Approval, Profile Avatar RemovalWhen you elect to screen incoming user photos (see the "Preferences" item of your site's "Layout" menu), you can now approve and reject photos in batches. It's also now possible for admins to remove a user's profile avatar when viewing their profile.

Jan 29, 2008

4102

Batch Photo DeleteWhen viewing a gallery, you can now select multiple photos and delete them in a single click.

Jan 23, 2008

4048

Prayer Request UpgradesUnregistered users can now post prayer requests if you enable this ability. Read full story for more information and other upgrade notes.

Jan 10, 2008

6033

Improved Front-Page EditingThe front-page layout editor is now interactive, with drag-and-drop module placement. The available module list is now also grouped by categories.

Dec 26, 2007

3655

Stats ImprovementOur statistics upgrade output has been improved. Internal referrers have been removed, and it now shows the 50 most popular pages. The new output will be available for your site within a week, when your stats are next processed.

New Template: DandelionThere's a new template option called "Dandelion" in the "Look & Feel" item of the "Layout" menu for members with the updated theme package. If you don't see this, you're running the older template system, and are eligible for a free upgrade. Contact us for details.

Nov 10, 2007

5186

New Editor: File Manager, Safari SupportWe've updated your site's HTML editor with many new features, including integration with your site's file manager and unofficial Safari/Opera support. Click for more info.

Nov 9, 2007

4257

Profile Photo ScreeningWant to allow your users to add personal profile photos, but afraid of abuses? You can now screen incoming photos before they're published. See the "Preferences" item of your site's "Layout" menu to turn this on.

Nov 8, 2007

3839

Multiple Rotating GalleriesYou can now add multiple rotating photo gallery modules to your front page, and also create front-page modules for galleries even if you didn't elect to do this when creating them. Click for more information.

Nov 8, 2007

4052

Open Links in New WindowThe "Links" section of your site now offers the ability to open links in new windows. You can choose this option when adding or editing a link.

Oct 24, 2007

3696

Support Email ValidationFor increased security, it's now necessary that you email support questions from an email address that's registered on your site. If you send a support request from another address, it will be kept in limbo while a response is returned to you. Clicking the link on that response will take you to a page where you can provide your logon information, allowing you to use your secondary email address in the future.

Oct 18, 2007

3942

Threaded Messenger ArchivePrivate messages are now stored and displayed as threads. Older messages aren't affected, but new conversations will be. The arrow next to a message will show the thread.

Oct 8, 2007

3763

News Article ReferencesFrom a news article, you can now add references to other news articles. See the "Refs" link when viewing an article. References will show in the info-box on the right side of a news entry. This also works with blogs.

Oct 8, 2007

3861

False Domain Renewal InvoicesWe've been hearing from an increasing number of customers who have received domain name "renewal" invoices from a company called DomainUSA. Do not respond to these, as they're a domain name scam that targets mostly churches, and paying it will provide no benefit for your site. If you purchased your domain name through ThisChurch, we're the only ones you should be paying for your hosting or domain name.

Sep 6, 2007

4963

Rotating Gallery SelectionYou can now limit which galleries show up on the rotating module on the front page. Click the "Filter" button to choose what will show.

Aug 10, 2007

5082

Friendly News URLsNews articles and blog posts now have friendly URLs, in other words, /n/article_title_here.html rather than /mod/news/view.php?article_id=493. This will help in usability and search engine optimization. The old URLs are still valid.

Aug 8, 2007

4390

Speed OptimizationsWe've added some optimizations to increase page loading times, particularly on pages with HTML editors. Scripts and CSS are now compressed for browsers which support it, and expire times are now in place for many images. If you run into any problems with stale data and such, please let us know.

Jul 27, 2007

4010

Discussion: "Hide"In addition to closing a discussion topic, which still shows it but doesn't allow new posts, you can also now hide it completely.

Jul 18, 2007

5200

Discussion: "Close Topic"There's a new button for administrators in the header of any discussion category: "Close Topic". Clicking this will make it impossible for users to post messages in this area of discussion in the future. This is useful when you have a news entry or something similar where you don't want to permit discussion.

Jul 6, 2007

6762

Social NetworkingYour users can now keep a "friends list" of other users, as in MySpace and Facebook. Users can now restrict parts of their profile to be viewable only by friends.

Jul 3, 2007

4214

Profile WallsEach user now has their own private wall on their profile page, in the style of MySpace and Facebook. This can be disabled by the user or system-wide (just ask) if desired.

News Article PollsYou can now attach polls to news articles. See the "Poll" button in the yellow admin box when viewing a news article to create a poll.

Jun 22, 2007

4198

COPPA ComplianceWe've updated our software to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We verify that all new accounts are 13 years of age or older.

Jun 18, 2007

4185

Multiple News Topic TagsEach news article you post can now have multiple topic tags associated with it. We've also added RSS metadata to make browsers aware of the RSS feeds for your news categories.

Jun 18, 2007

7106

New Template AvailableA new template called "Floating Gradient" is available. It's a lightweight and clean theme with a slow gradient in the background. See the "Look & Feel" item of your site's "Layout" menu.

Jun 13, 2007

4060

POP Mailbox Quotas IncreasedWe've increased the size of your POP mailboxes from 5MB to 10MB, and have given you the option to increase them further, using your site's available disk space. See the "Domain/Email" item of your site's "Features" menu to complete the conversion.

Jun 10, 2007

3756

Logon ThrottlingWe've added a feature that prevents "dictionary attacks" for password guessing. Four failed logon attempts within 10 minutes for one of your users will temporarily suspend their logon abilities for 10 minutes. After this time, they'll be able to log on again.

Jun 7, 2007

4704

Chat Function OverhauledThe chat wall / IM function of the site is now much more efficient, and is wrapped in your site's regular template, as opposed to its own framed window. It's optimized to be much friendlier with network usage, and more responsive as well.

May 16, 2007

4287

Forum ModeratorsYou can now assign administrators to an individual forum. See the "Administrators" button on a given forum.

May 9, 2007

5747

Password VerificationAs part of our ongoing commitment to your data security, password verification is now required for sensitive operations. Click for more information.

Apr 23, 2007

4419

Sticky Forum TopicsForum topics are usually sorted with the most recently posted at the top. You can now make a thread "sticky", which means it will always be shown at the top of the list. This is useful when there's a topic that needs to be easy to find, or is otherwise important (forum rules, etc).

Know of a church who would benefit from ThisChurch? Send them our way and we'll credit your account with their first two months' fees as a referral bonus - that's a minimum of $80! See the "Refer Another Church" item of your site's "Help" menu for details.

Full Control Over Breadcrumb PlacementIf you're a HTML template hacker, you now have full control over the placement of the breadcrumbs in your site's template. The new |BREADCRUMBS| expansion will paste the CSS-ready breadcrumbs anywhere in your header, overriding the default placement at the end.

Apr 10, 2007

4914

Nested File UploadsIt was previously only possible to create nested files by hand in your File Manager. You can now upload nested files, as well.

Apr 10, 2007

4664

Password SecurityFor increased security, it's no longer possible for user accounts to choose simple passwords based on dictionary words. Existing passwords will still work, but it will need to be updated next time you or your users update their accounts.

Apr 2, 2007

4598

Pending Account Email NotificationsIf you have enabled the requirement for administrative approval of new user accounts, we've made it easier to keep up with these. All site administrators will now receive an email each time a new account has been added.

Mar 26, 2007

4182

Two New Templates AvailableThose with recent templating software will find two new templates available: "Sunday Smile" and "Flaky Paint". If you don't see these, and would like to upgrade to our most recent themes (which enables you to receive upgrades and new themes), contact us for the free upgrade.

Mar 13, 2007

4210

10 New "Fun" Fonts AvailableWe've added 10 new fonts to the "Fun" list. You can find this in the "Look & Feel" item of your site's "Content" menu, then by clicking the "Customize Header Fonts" button. Only certain themes support this feature.

Mar 13, 2007

4959

Editing SignaturesAdmins can now edit the forum signatures of users. Any signatures that violate your terms of use can be edited or removed.

Mar 7, 2007

4647

Duplicate Logon DetectorWe've added even more security to keep your user accounts safe. Once you log on, the logon cookie will only be valid until you log off, or you log on with your username and password from a different computer. If you forget to log off on a public computer, a bad guy will not be able to keep using your account once you've logged on elsewhere. Click to read more about user account security.

Mar 2, 2007

4473

Binding Logons to IP AddressWe've added a new security feature to keep your user account more secure. The logon screen now has a "Bind to IP" box that restricts your logon to the current IP address. If someone manages to steal your cookie, they won't be able to use it on another computer. Note that this feature doesn't work well with dial-up accounts, especially AOL.

Feb 28, 2007

4924

New Date SelectorWhen editing forms with a date selection, we have a new calendar control to make this process easy. This replaces the previous control and addresses its shortcomings, especially the lack of year back/forward buttons.

Feb 27, 2007

4198

Faster Rotating GalleriesIf slow page loading times were keeping you from using our "Photos (Rotating)" front-page module, we reworked it so that this should be much faster. Photos are resized for a smaller file size, and should take less than a third of the original time to load.

Feb 21, 2007

5613

MP3 StreamingNow included as part of the RealAudio/RealVideo upgrade is MP3 streaming. Now users can start listening to your MP3s immediately as they click them, rather than waiting for the full file to download. It also enables a Flash-based player for streaming MP3s. See the "Account Upgrades" item of your site's "Features" menu.

Paginated TablesIn areas of your site with tables of items that may get long (forum topics, news items, polls, etc), we've added instant pagination to these lists. We've also greatly improved the sorting ability of these tables.

Jan 27, 2007

4299

Basic Stats ChartThe "Statistics" item of your site's "Features" menu now includes a chart of approximate hits over the last two weeks. Click for more information.

Jan 24, 2007

5407

Massmail UpdatesWe've overhauled a couple key parts of the massmailing system. First, after signing up, users can enter their location and name. We'll be offering the ability to filter mailings by location in the future. We've also simplified the screens and removed the distinction between site signups and manual signups.

Jan 22, 2007

4266

News List RedesignThe main page for each news category now shows news links in an easy-to-read table, rather than just freeform links. If you'd prefer the old format, let us know and we'll switch you back.

Dec 29, 2006

4525

Admin Box ShrunkThe yellow box that contains page-specific admin buttons has been shrunk to take up less screen space. There's also an "X" link that will temporarily remove it from the screen, so you can see the layout as a regular user would see it.

Dec 29, 2006

4636

Email Protection (SPF Records) AvailableA common spam and virus tactic to be aware of involves forged emails being sent from addresses at your domain. Your users may receive these messages, appearing to be from a trusted source, and open the attachments which infect their computers with viruses. We now offer a way around this.

Dec 27, 2006

4490

Improved Backup SystemIn our commitment to offer the best data security in the industry, we now not only mirror several days of backups off-site, but we also now keep an off-site server on alert at all times. If anything should happen to our primary servers, we'll be able to move to the backup server almost immediately.

Dec 26, 2006

4352

Larger Selection of FontsIf you're using a non-Flash theme, there are now about 150 font choices for the header, rather than the 25 from before. Go to the "Look & Feel" item of your site's "Layout" menu and click the "Customize Header Fonts" button. Enjoy!

ThisChurch BlogWe've decided to start a ThisChurch Blog to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the company. We'll be publishing tips, tricks and information about upcoming features. You can view it from here.

Dec 18, 2006

563

Prayer Request NotificationsIn the new prayer requests module, you can now appoint a list of email addresses that will receive prayer requests as they come in. See the "Notifications" link in the yellow box on that page.

Dec 5, 2006

5642

For Users of "McAfee Privacy Service"We've had reports that this software will break the HTML editor on your site. It should be disabled, or you should whitelist your domain in the list of trusted sites. We aren't able to test this, but if someone who does use it can send specific directions to disable, we'd appreciate it.

Nov 27, 2006

5076

New Editor AvailableA new version of your site's HTML editor is now in place. It's fairly similar, but has many bug fixes, stability improvements, and speed gains. Click for more information.

Nov 15, 2006

5194

Table RedesignWe've introduced an attractive new design for the data tables on your site. They're now standards-compliant and CSS-based. For the HTML junkies, the data tables are tagged with the "etable" class.

Nov 14, 2006

7918

Human Verification is Now StandardIn order to prevent spam from cluttering your website, we've set the human verification to be always on for anonymous users. This means that visitors will need to retype a number in order to post messages, create accounts, etc.

SMTP Server Now AvailableBy popular demand, we now offer an SMTP server for outgoing mail. The address is the same as your POP server (mail.yoursite.org), and SMTP authentication is required. Here is the updated configuration information. Note that no change is necessary if your email is currently working fine.

Nov 4, 2006

4776

News Article Photo GalleriesEach news article now has its own photo gallery. See the "Photo Gallery" in the yellow administration box. A mini-slideshow preview will show beneath the article, which can then be clicked for the full gallery.

Nov 3, 2006

5194

Moving ServersIn the next few days, we'll be migrating all servers to a new server facility. What does this mean for you? Hopefully nothing - if you're using the website right as we move it, you may see a message for an hour or so. After the move is complete, the response speed should be much quicker. Please let us know if you see anything odd happening. Thanks!

"This Page" Admin MenuThe yellow admin bar at the top of your site has a new menu called "This Page". It has context-sensitive shortcut commands that act on the page you're currently viewing. Actions can include "Help", "Edit", "Delete", "Lockdown" (to block from anonymous users) and "Add to Linkbar".

Oct 11, 2006

4855

Calendar Event HoveringThe small calendar on your site's front page will now show the events for a given day when you hover over it.

Oct 10, 2006

4873

User Account Self-DeletionYour users may now delete their own user accounts, using the "Customize Profile" link on the front page.

Oct 10, 2006

4578

File Manager: Nested FilesFor any templated document in your site's file manager, you can now create nested documents. A menu box will automatically show in the top-right corner of the parent document with links to the nested documents.

Oct 9, 2006

4754

File Manager Front-Page ModulesWhen viewing a folder in a group or global file manager, you now have a "Add to Front Page" link. This will create a new module on your front page with links to all of this folder's files, as well as the tree of nested folders.

Oct 9, 2006

4911

File Manager Module for GroupsIn the group page layout screen, you can now add a "File Manager" module. This will show links to all files in the group's file manager. Coming soon: the same for the global front page.

Sep 26, 2006

4512

Flip Gallery ImagesEver uploaded a "sideways" image to your gallery? You can now rotate it in online.

Sep 26, 2006

4903

Non-Flash Gallery RotationIf you're using the "Photos (rotating)" module on your front-page layout, it no longer requires Flash. If you have problems with the new version, please let us know!

Aug 8, 2006

6338

File Manager Files Now SearchableFiles uploaded to your file manager will now show up when you run a site search. Administrators search all files, logged-in users search for all public and login-restricted files, and anonymous users search public files only. Groups are not yet searchable by non-admins, but we plan to offer this soon.

Jul 19, 2006

4777

Automatic Draft SavingHave you ever been typing along, just to lose all of your work when your browser crashes? Not anymore with ThisChurch! Read on for more information.

Jul 12, 2006

7777

Prayer Requests ModuleA new prayer requests module is available. It replaces the current method of using a general forum, and add the ability to post private requests. Click for details.

Jul 10, 2006

7815

Spam Filtering Now In PlaceBy popular demand, all incoming mail is now filtered for viruses and spam. It won't stop 100% of the spam, but it should be fairly effective. Please notify us if you have any issues with mail over the next couple days.

Jul 9, 2006

4553

Instant Gallery NavigationPhoto galleries are now actively scripted so that clicking to the next and previous photo will instantly load it (if your browser has cached it in time). It should be backward compatible with non-JavaScript browsers. Please report any troubles - thanks!

Jun 27, 2006

5055

Forum SignaturesNow you can have signatures below your messages in the forums. Just click the "Customize Profile" when logged on as a user to create a signature file.

May 10, 2006

11126

Anonymous AccountabilityWhen posting messages anonymously, a name is now required. The IP address is also saved and shown to provide a level of accountability.

Links OverhaulBy popular demand, the "External Links" module on your site has been given a large overhaul. There are numerous new features, including nested sub-folders and the ability to edit and reorder existing links. We've also renamed the item that controls the bar of primary internal links on your site from "Main Links" to "Linkbar" to eliminate confusion with the "External Links" feature.

Apr 5, 2006

12381

Enhanced Logon CodeThisChurch now deals more gracefully with browsers with disabled cookies. First, there's a test for cookie support, and it will give your users an informative message when cookies are disabled. Second, there's now a logon duration selection. Users may have more luck using the "Only Until I Close My Browser" duration.

Apr 3, 2006

4920

Human Verification ImprovementsWe were hearing reports of problems with the human verification behind a firewall or proxy server, so we've redone the handling so that this shouldn't be a problem anymore. Please let us know if you find any problems.

Mar 28, 2006

4927

Search Engine Submission - ImprovementsWe've not only added new Christian search engines to our search engine submission process, we've also lowered the price. Your site can now be submitted to more than 50 Christian and secular search engines for only $150. More Information

Mar 27, 2006

4823

Screening Your Discussion PostsNervous about allowing your users to post unscreened messages to your site? You can now require administrator approval for incoming messages. See the "Preferences" item of your site's "Layout" menu.

Mar 10, 2006

4844

Improved Theme Color EditorThe point-and-click color editor for site themes is now much faster and more flexible. It now works as you'd expect in an application like Photoshop. It's also now supported in Firefox and possibly other browsers. Please let us know if you run into any problems.

Feb 21, 2006

4859

New Date PickerWhen adding information which requires a date, there is now an easy-to-use calendar. Let us know if you run into any problems with this.

Feb 15, 2006

5863

New File ManagerThisChurch now offers a state-of-the-art file manager. Click for more information.

Feb 1, 2006

6730

Human Verification TechnologyWe now support Captcha technology, which prevents spammers from posting junk on your site. Click to find out how to activate it.

Nov 9, 2005

6210

Context-Sensitive HelpThe yellow administrative linkbar at the top of your site now contains context-sensitive help for most of the site. Click "Help" when you see the icon next to it, and you'll be taken to the relevant part of the software manual.

Scheduled Downtime Tomorrow MorningThere will be a 15-30 minute downtime window around 6am tomorrow morning for all accounts created before Feb 18th, 2005. We're upgrading the server hardware to improve performance. Our apologies for the inconvenience!

Jun 14, 2005

4919

Tell A Friend CustomizationYour users can now customize messages sent with "Tell a Friend" and the news section's "Email This Article" feature.

Jun 6, 2005

5105

PodcastingYou can create your own podcast by simply adding MP3 attachments to news articles. The RSS feed for that news category will automatically be a valid podcast. More about podcasting...

Jun 2, 2005

5157

Group File ManagersEach group now has its own file manager, which can be accessed from the group's administration panel. Any group administrator can now upload files. This is a beta feature - please let us know if you have any troubles.

Apr 17, 2005

4951

Moving Photo GalleriesYou can now move galleries around in the tree of galleries. Edit the gallery you'd like to move to see the new option to move it.

Warning about AOL "Security Edition"We advise against using AOL's new "Security Edition" if you are a webmaster. This disables some functions required for updating your site, such as file uploading and other areas of the HTML editor. Thanks to George Strickland of Directions to Orthodoxy for this information.

Dec 21, 2004

6600

New Administration BarThe admin bar at the top of your site has been redesigned and laid out more intuitively.

Email Discussion ListsYou can now create email discussion lists. An email sent to one of these lists will go to all members of the list. See the "Mass Mailer" item of your site's "Features" menu. Discussion lists count against your site's POP mailbox limit.

Nov 18, 2004

5276

SitemapWe now have an automatic sitemap module that you can use. See the "Main Links" item of your "Content & Layout" menu to add this to your links.

Oct 21, 2004

6838

Improved Admin ControlsWe're moving to a consistent method for showing admin controls that affect a given page. We're also adding a feature called "Blurbs", which allows you to place custom text on most any page. We're also adding context-sensitive support links. It will take awhile to retrofit the entire site, but we hope to have it done within a month.

Oct 20, 2004

5385

WeblogsBy popular demand, weblogs are here. See the "Weblogs" item of the "Features" menu. This is a fairly large and new feature, so please let us know if you find any bugs. More Information..

Hit CounterIf you'd like to add a "hit counter" to your front page, see the new "Counter" module in the "Front-Page Layout" item of your "Content & Layout" menu. This is the number of page requests your site has received since opening, and is updated every 15 minutes.

Oct 6, 2004

5479

Subgroup Calendar Event MirroringIt's now possible to automatically show the events of a given subgroup's calendar on the main site's calendar. See the bottom of a group's administration screen to set this up.

Oct 5, 2004

4729

Localized ForumsYou can now create "localized" forums, meaning that topics have cities attached to them, and readers can filter to posts within 30 miles of Sometown, PA. Note that most churches will not have a use for this, but if you are a ministry with global visitors, it might be handy.

Oct 4, 2004

9298

Point-and-Click Color EditorWe now offer a point-and-click color editor for themes. You won't be automatically upgraded, but if you don't mind some amount of cosmetic change to your site, just ask and we'll switch you over. Note that it's a one-way switch, and can't be reverted later.

Photo Gallery SortingIt's now possible to move photos around from within a gallery. Use the up and down arrows to accomplish this, and hit "refresh" to repeat a move up or down.

Jun 3, 2004

4975

Custom Forms and SurveysYou can now create your own surveys and forms. You tell it what questions to ask, and it will collect results. See the "Forms" item of the "Features" menu.

Jun 2, 2004

4701

Memorial DayThe ThisChurch office will be closed from Saturday to Monday for Memorial Day. Questions will be answered slower than usual during that time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

May 28, 2004

5070

New HTML EditorA new version of our HTML editor is now online. There are many new features, including spell checking, international characters, and the ability to paste from Word without duplicated text.

May 10, 2004

6037

News Article StatisticsWe now track how many times a given news article has been viewed. Let us know if you'd rather hide this information.

May 6, 2004

5027

User Permission EditorIt's even easier to assign granular permissions to individual users. Go to the "Directory" under "User Manager", and click on "Edit" next to a user to manage their permissions.

May 3, 2004

4439

News Category EditingIt's now possible to change the name and permissions of news categories. You can do this from http://www.yoursite.org/mod/news/ .

Group Mailing ListsAdmins can now send mail to every member of a subgroup on your site. See the last entry on the "Make Changes" menu to do this.

Mar 19, 2004

4686

Multiple Mailing ListsYour site can now have multiple announcement mailing lists. See the "Massmail" under the "Features" menu.

Mar 19, 2004

4257

User EditorIt's now possible to edit the users of your site. You can change their names, email addresses, and passwords from the Directory item of the User Manager menu (see the "Edit" links next to each user).

Mar 5, 2004

4592

Front-Page Block for All GalleriesThere's a new front-page block option which allows you to rotate photos from all of your galleries. Three photos are chosen at random from all of your galleries and thumbnails are shown. See the "Photos (All Galleries)" item on the Front-Page Layout section.

Mar 4, 2004

4193

Virus EmailsThere's a new virus circulating the internet that looks like it comes from either us, or your domain name, and tells you to open an attachment to avoid cancellation. This is not from us, and opening the attachment will infect your computer with a virus.

Mar 4, 2004

4323

Guestbook ModuleWe've created a new module to manage a guestbook for your site. You can add it to your site's linkbar from the admin menu's Content & Layout > Main Links.

Feb 24, 2004

9455

Nested Photo GalleriesIt's now possible to create photo galleries within photo galleries. Each gallery has its own permissioning system.

Feb 24, 2004

4326

Administrative Account ApprovalYou can now require an administrator to validate an account before it becomes active. See the Admin Menu > Content & Layout > Preferences for this setting.

Customer SurveyCurrent Customers: We'd love to hear how we're doing. Please take a few minutes to fill out a survey to let us know what you think.

Feb 18, 2004

4597

User Directory PermissionsIt's now possible for you to restrict anonymous users from viewing your directory. Go to User Manager > User Directory and you'll see a new link.

Feb 16, 2004

4338

Photo Gallery PermissionsYou can now assign administrators to an individual photo gallery without giving them free reign over the site. Go to a gallery, and you'll see a new link to manage permissions.

Feb 16, 2004

4145

ThisChurch GlossaryBy popular demand, we've added a glossary to our support section which defines many of the common terms you'll see at ThisChurch. Feel free to suggest new terms to this.

Rotating Front-Page BlocksIn addition to the freeform front-page blocks, you can now create blocks which rotate content on a random basis each pageview. See the "Front-Page Layout" admin menu item.

Jan 14, 2004

4722

"Your Church" Magazine FeatureWe're proud to be featured in the latest issue of Your Church magazine. Thanks to all of you who have helped make ThisChurch.org what it is today - keep the suggestions coming!

Jan 13, 2004

4176

Photo Gallery SortingIt's now possible to sort photo galleries forward and backward. See the drop-down next to the gallery name when viewint the gallery page.

Jan 13, 2004

4450

Usage StatisticsThere's a new item in the features menu, "Statistics". It breaks down the individual parts of your site for time-based usage stats.

Jan 11, 2004

36784

Server Move CompletedThe server move is now complete. You should notice a quicker response time on your site. Let us know if there are any problems.

Jan 11, 2004

4040

Merry Christmas!Due to the holidays, support will be slower from the afternoon of the 24th until the 27th. Questions will be answered within 24 hours. We apologize for the inconvenince, and Merry Christmas!

Dec 24, 2003

4837

Custom Group ColorsYou can now assign a different color scheme to given group. The breadcrumbs are also now much more consistent when navigating around groups.

Dec 17, 2003

4426

Upgrading ServerOver the next couple weeks, we'll be moving your account to a faster new server. You should see a significant performance increase. Your site will be inaccessible for a maximum of one hour, and probably much less than that or not at all. Please let us know if you see anything out of the ordinary!

Dec 12, 2003

5411

News Article AttachmentsWhen you add news articles, you can now attach files to them. First, add the news, and then you'll see a box allowing you to add the files.

Dec 1, 2003

4485

Mailing List Signup BoxYou can now add a mailing list signup box to your front page. It does not require an account for a user to get on your mailing list.

RealAudio and RealVideo AvailableYou can now stream audio and video. There is no additional monthly charge for this service, and the $50 setup fee can be paid in the "Account Upgrades" section of your administration menu.

Aug 18, 2003

3921

6-Month Payment OptionBy popular demand, we now offer payment in six-month increments, which gets you one month free per year.

Aug 7, 2003

4869

Birthday Card SigningHappy birthday wishes are now on the main page (in the news module), and you can sign birthday cards for tomorrow. This feature is for registered members only.

Scheduled Maintenance Tuesday NightOur datacenter is upgrading its power infrastructure, and this means your website may be offline periodically from Tuesday July 1 11:45 pm CDT to Wednesday July 2 4:00 am. Sorry for the inconvenience.

POP Mailboxes AvailableIf you have a domain, you can now offer real email accounts for it, as well as a web mail interface to read it. Just ask and we'll set up a control center for your domain. More Information...

Jun 24, 2003

3944

New Theme ManagerThis isn't of interest to most subscribers, but the theme editor and selector has been rewritten for new accounts. It separates the layout from the stylesheets. If you'd like it, just ask.

Custom Top LinkbarNew accounts automatically can edit the links at the top of their site, and previously created accounts can request this ability.

May 30, 2003

4143

Mass Account CreatorNow available via your admin menu: the mass account creator, to create many accounts at once for your users.

May 15, 2003

4651

Improved File ManagerThe freeform file manager now has an improved interface, and the ability to resize uploaded images.

Apr 23, 2003

4113

Discussion Thread WatchesYou can now be updated via email when an interesting discussion thread is posted to. Click the "Watch" link at the top of a thread to enable notification.

Apr 22, 2003

9442

WeblogsA weblog feature has been added to your administration menu. It's a neat way to informally keep your members up to date. Contact us if you need help linking it into your templates.

Apr 22, 2003

4492

XML News SyndicationIt's now possible to offer RSS syndication for your news categories. This will allow people to "subscribe" to your news with RSS readers. Look for the icon.

Apr 21, 2003

5054

Added Forums to MinistriesYou can now create forums for ministries. Just go to the administration page, and select the "add forums" option. You may also need to edit the group options to "show forums".